All Along the Watchtower
by Mister Buch
Summary: By Knightfall1138 and Mister Buch. This story has been abandoned, at least for the time being. Many, many thanks for the reviews! This is the first half of a prequel to the first 'Mass Effect', about Joker and Kaidan on an all-biotic mission on Palaven.
1. Prelude: To Fall From Grace

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Mass Effect: "All Along the Watchtower"

Prelude – To Fall From Grace

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_This story is a collaborative effort co-written by me and Knightfall1138. There are also two short prequels to this story if you're interested - I wrote 'The Joker' (on my profile) and Knightfall wrote 'The Thief' (on his profile.)_

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They had left her beaten and broken in the corner of the jail cell. There were no words or threats, just the vicious onslaught of her faceless attackers and the certainty that no possible explanation could provide just reason for the way she'd been treated that day. She hadn't cried through the ordeal, though her pride was the only part of her left unscathed.

When silence settled in the cell for several minutes unremitting, she propped herself off the floor and out of the pooling of her own blood. The solitude seemed a pathetic excuse for mercy, but she embraced unflinching. There was nothing else in the galaxy that she wanted more at that moment: Peace of mind, no matter how brief.

With as much dignity as she could manage, she pulled her now tattered and scuffed robes tighter around her body. She examined her aching arms and legs and looked for any serious injuries. There was nothing worse than a few deep gashes in her blue-tinted skin and scrapes from when she had been dragged off her ship. And for the life of her, the asari couldn't remember how the intruders had boarded her ship in the first place.

It seemed a moot point at that particular moment, now that her main priority was how to deal with her captors—diplomatic or otherwise. She was not as delicate as she looked, a detail she hoped had evaded her kidnappers. On her homeplanet of Thessia, she was considered one of the most biotically powerful Matriarchs, if not the wisest. Though many had debated her theses, few would ever quarrel with her, which made her question why these strangers would.

She carefully got to her feet, the energy draining from her with every movement she made. The view she had of the rest of the cell block was minimal at best through the heavy metal bars that caged her in. At the rear of the cell, though, a thick shield of polarized glass gave her a window to the outside world. The land was devoid of life and very rocky. Everything was also terribly bright, making it hard to pick out little details that could give her a hint as to where she was.

After a couple minutes of scouting, she collapsed onto the cot they had left for her, which was so worn and rusted it hardly supported her dainty form. The asari Matriarch had to face facts. She had no way of escaping, not with her body so wracked and her energy spent. The only way she'd be getting out is if her captors allowed it, which didn't seem likely given their treatment of her.

So she waited, dangling her blue fingers over her eyes and rubbing at the hardened carapace that slipped off the back of her head. Meditation was impossible, as one of her limbs would flare up with pain at any random moment. It was difficult to bear the truths of her situation during her time alone. She had fallen so far, she couldn't stand it—lying in the dank and musty jail cell in her Matriarchal robes with dirt and blood caked all over her body.

She finally cried. Finding her throat taut and her voice raspy only made things worse. Even this simple, humiliating comfort refused to come easily to her.

"I can't be here," the asari whimpered. "I shouldn't be here."

A door groaned open somewhere in the cell block. The Matriarch did all she could to quickly dry her eyes and sit as upright as possible. She wouldn't give them the satisfaction of finding her in the same state they had left her. Not a chance.

Footsteps echoed around the cell until a figure appeared at the bars. After a key was waved over the panel, the barred doors slid open. A turian stepped inside. He was of a dark color, with white tribal paint moving across his face like waves. He showed no emotion and didn't regard the asari at all as he entered. When he was well inside, he stared out through the polarized window in the cell.

"Are you in charge here, turian?" the Matriarch demanded, masking any weakness in her voice. "Why have I been treated this way?"

The turian didn't answer immediately. Instead, he continued gazing at the landscape outside until whatever he saw had run its course in his mind. He turned to the asari. "Those are two very good questions. Diplomatic as always. Right to the end."

That answer stunned the Matriarch. Before she could ask the turian to elaborate on his comment, he continued.

"Humans, well, they lash out right when the gate's opened. They usually find the means to fashion some crude weapon by the time we return to check on them. Very animalistic. Never quite what I'm expecting." He began to pace around the room. "Salarians are always off in a corner, scared out of their wits. I'm not sure if that means that we exclusively picked up all of the cowards of the race without knowing it, but I'm not sure it's a good sign either way.

"Krogans… suffice to say, they don't make it to a jail cell," the turian said with a scoff. "Fellow turians know when they've been beat, and silently cooperate. But the asari, always with the questions! Like there's no problem in the verse that you can't think your way out of. You're too proud to accept defeat, which… _frustrates_ me to some end."

The turian moved towards the Matriarch, backing her into the cell wall. "You think there's always an exit to any sort of predicament. As if you have some innate belief that you're naturally on a higher station than any other thinking being."

"I'm afraid I can't agree with you in that respect," the asari said, feigning confidence. "I not where I'm supposed to be, Mister Turian. You and your men have me here against my will. I was simply asking for clarification as to…_why._"

The turian snickered. "There's no possible way to _simply_ tell you why I've brought you here. Just know that my name is Tarius Soletian, and that I am keeping you here for the same reason that you believe you shouldn't be here. That will be reason enough."

Unable to keep up the façade any longer, the Matriarch's emotions became painfully visible as she spoke. "You're absolutely mad! You have no reason to keep me here! What have I ever done to you? You're not making any sense. Why don't you just tell me why you're keeping me here and grant me some measure of peace? Perhaps I can even help you in getting what you seek."

Suddenly, Tarius began to laugh uproariously. "I've given you your answer, _my lady,_ and still you've run yourself in circles. Questioning my intelligence and my motives will do you absolutely no good here." He kicked forward and pinned the asari Matriarch up against the wall, with one hand on her neck and the other resting across her breasts. "You've never been helpless a moment of your life. I can see your story in your eyes and I see a fantasy. Something resembling a pulse in this galaxy, but it's never been tested—truly tested."

He kissed her roughly. "I will show you what it means to be a part of all things. And you will see why it all needs to be silenced."

Two men in environmental suits and gas masks entered the room, dragging a petite, blue**-**green-skinned asari behind them.

"Tasha!" the Matriarch shrieked, seeing her bodyguard strewn across the floor. That was when Tarius released his choke hold and she collapsed onto the floor. Through a fit of coughs, shesnarled, "Don't you hurt her!"

"Well…I already did that," Tarius replied with a grin. "But, luckily, she won't have to feel it much longer." He picked up the asari bodyguard off the floor and aimed a pistol at her temple, point blank. Showing less strength than her mistress had, the maiden let a low yelp escape her open lips.

"No! Please!" The Matriarch tried to reach her companion, but the men in gas masks restrained her. "Why are you doing this?!"

"Because what you are has no place in this galaxy!" Tarius replied at a shout. "There is no justice to what you spread. There is no greater good that sprouts up in its wake. No! There is only pain and suffering left behind as you tarry about in your ever-ignorant manner. Biotics are a disease, _my lady._ I'm doing what any caring doctor would do. Severing the infected limb."

The bodyguard came to. Her pale eyes were glazed over, seeming whiter than ever but they managed to weakly lock onto the Matriarch. "My lady…" she wheezed. "…Please…." A tear rolled down her cheek.

"Tarius, no!" the Matriarch begged. "Please, don't do this…"

"Prove me wrong," Tarius said sincerely. His eyes wanting. "Tell me that everything I've done here has been for nothing. That what you are can be used for the betterment of all that dwell within the galaxy. That biotics should have a place in its workings, like all living things do. That they are capable of doing something pure. Some extraordinary _good_." He gritted his teeth, awaiting an answer, but received none.

"Prove me wrong," he said flatly. "Stop this bullet and save your friend." He pulled back on the trigger.


	2. First Impressions

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Mass Effect: "All Along the Watchtower"

Chapter One - First Impressions

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Joker liked small ships. Lately he'd been stuck behind the controls of big freighters and heavy military birds. While it was nice having such a lot of buttons to mess with, the flying itself was slow, boring and easy. All his training had taken place on little scouters, shuttles and that one fighter. That beautiful fighter. His new ship was bigger than those, but still light, maneuverable and fast. It promised a lot of fun.

It was a frigate, and a slim-line one at that. It didn't look like much, indeed it was hardly the Alliance's pride and joy, but it was small enough. Just two floors, a tidy crew and one pilot. Having to crane his head a little, Joker glanced at the empty seat opposite him. This cockpit had been designed for two, but luckily the Captain recognized his helmsman's talents. A co-pilot would only get in his way, and everyone on board knew it.

A man's voice came through the ship's surprisingly cheap speakers. _"Hello? Hello, _Shiloh?_"_

"Good morning," Joker confirmed, flicking a switch. "This is _SSV Shiloh_, nice and early for ya. Requesting landing co-ordinates."

It was hard to make out the voice, but after an audible click on the other end of the line, some of the static noise faded. _"Very good, Shiloh. Sending you__ an approach vector now_."

Joker remained silent until he had received a series of numbers and translated them into a course. "On our way," he told the voice, then switched off his transmitter.

The best thing about small ships was the viewscreen. Having been trained in shuttles, Joker was used to having a good view of space in front of him. But the Alliance, always with safety in mind, liked their cockpits protected by a meter of metal. It made sense; the flickering readouts directly in front of Joker did a better job of helping him fly than simple reinforced glass. But it was nice to have a view, and he had missed that.

This frigate was an odd mix. There was a foot-high strip of a window lining the walls, level with his knees. Through it he could see clouds rushing past and little hints of blue sky. It was a nice view, but he wondered what the catch was. According to the information he had, the little world, hidden in a remote corner of the Exodus Cluster, was terrestrial and had a breathable atmosphere. From the sky, he guessed it was very Earth-like, too. The Alliance government was keeping the colony to itself for the time being for some research. As he pondered the situation, he pursed his lips and sucked through his teeth.

Lieutenant Alenko chose this moment to enter the cockpit, giving Joker an amused look as he passed him. Moving with precision and care he lowered himself into the co-pilot's chair. When he was comfortably seated, he let out a relieved sigh.

"What's our ETA, Joker?" he asked, making the order sound very casual.

"About fifteen minutes," Joker replied, looking over. A thick, metal beam separated them, so that he could only see Kaidan's head above the mouth.

Though _Shiloh_ had only been up off the ground a few days, Kaidan had already made the defunct co-pilot's seat his own. Whenever he had time to himself, he would sit there and make small-talk with the pilot. Joker found the guy interesting, to say the least. They had very little in common, or at least nothing that made it into conversation, but the strange events of their first meeting had made such an impression that some kind of friendship was inevitable. In any case, Joker preferred Kaidan's conversation to those of the other jackass biotic super-soldiers onboard.

After the silence had become embarrassing, Joker broke it by voicing his thoughts. "Hey Alenko, why does this thing have to be called the _Shiloh?_ It's ridiculous. My aunt's kid had a puppy named Shiloh."

Kaidan looked over, expressionless, perhaps lost in his thoughts again. "It was a battle, in the American Civil War. The frigates are named after…"

"Yeah, I know that. I grew up around ships, genius. But why _Shiloh?_ It's embarrassing when we dock. Why not, like, _Gettysburg?_"

Kaidan shook his head a little, smiling to himself. "Well, I guess the Alliance is keeping that battle for a more high-profile ship. Must have picked this name so that we don't make an impression. So nobody remembers us."

"There were a lot of battles in that war," Joker countered. "I know a few things about history too, pal. How about the _SSV Bull Run?_ How good does that sound?"

Lifting his head and his eyebrows, Kaidan made eye-contact and smiled beneath the metal beam. "Bull Run?" he repeated, incredulous.

"I got an even better one," Joker grinned. "_SSV Chicamauga! _You have to admit, it'd be fun, flying around in the _Chicamauga_. Rolls off the tongue."

Kaidan laughed a little, under his breath. "Well, I think those were both Confederate victories. The southern hospitality of the time is probably not the kind of image the Alliance wants to project."

Joker snorted silently, unsure how to react. Was Alenko trying to one-up his history knowledge, or just playing along with the joke? Kaidan was not an easy man to understand.

Kaidan stood and turned immediately, and Joker was glad of the distraction. A moment later, he recognized the captain's approaching footsteps.

"Lieutenant," Captain Bryant said calmly, "I don't think Moreau will be needing a co-pilot. Get your suit on. I'll want you, Brady and Sang out of the hatch the moment we dock."

They exchanged salutes and Kaidan gave a quick "Yes, sir". Walking ahead of his commanding officer in order to save time, he strode quickly through a little corridor and into the bridge. The largest room onboard, it housed the circular Combat Information Center with the little galaxy map in hologram form in the middle. Surrounding this base of operations were walls lined with all the diagnostic and navigational consoles that could be crammed in, and a chair for each. The captain liked to turn these chairs around when he addressed the crew, so that his seated subordinates would be beneath him as he spoke.

Through the left-hand door, Kaidan found his locker and pulled-out his thinly-armored hardsuit. Putting it on was like slipping into a wetsuit, but after thirty-four ground missions, he had gotten used to it.

When he made it to the exit hatch, he found Chief Sang and Private Brady waiting, helmeted and speculating about the mission. He said 'hello' and nodded sincerely, but they simply fell silent. Ignoring the snub, he passed between them and stood in front of them. He knew that Sang resented his being selected as squad leader, seeing as he had more experience and was only of slightly lower rank, but he had no idea what Brady's problem might be.

As long as they followed orders, it didn't matter. Kaidan had other things on his mind.

Bryant had told them little about the world they were about to walk on. Aside from the name of the colony, the soldiers didn't even know where they _were_. Wynn's Cross was some sort of experimental government research base on a terrestrial moon nobody was supposed to know about. They weren't doing anything illegal up there, but it was very hush-hush. They had lit a distress beacon after two of the senior staff had been killed, but Kaidan knew it was more than coincidence that _Shiloh_ happened to be in the neighborhood on its first run.

Every major military force in the galaxy used teams of biotic soldiers, usually as shock troopers. Those with the ability to craft shields and projectiles from dark energy were ideally suited for the front lines of an assault. But human biotics were still rare and humanity was still finding its feet in the matter. Only now, with the new generation of L3 implants, were effective, stable soldiers being produced.

The asari commandos could afford to rely heavily on biotic ability. They were just too advanced for the Alliance to learn from. Salarian biotics were so rare that they were only sparingly used in battle. The turians, though, were different. Their biotic soldiers were numbered in a range comparable with those of the Alliance, and with similar innate abilities. The Hierarchy grouped these individuals into specialist teams known as _Cabals_.

Having made a strong impression on humanity in the First Contact War, the turian military was under constant observation by the Fleet Admirals. At the moment, a great deal of prototype technology seemed to be cropping up, based on modified turian designs. New ship drives, weapons and command structures were being experimented with back on Arcturus, all aping the turian models. But someone high up wanted to try a human Cabal, too.

And so it was that three biotic marines stood ready to leave an unimpressive, unmemorable frigate and set foot on a world that officially didn't exist. Kaidan didn't like being used like a lab rat, and just being forced to publicly acknowledge his biotic abilities made him uncomfortable, but orders were orders.

A familiar voice crackled through his headset. _"Hey Alenko. Testing your receiver. You hear me?"_

"I hear you, Joker."

"_Fantastic. Good luck out there, and remember…"_

Kaidan involuntarily looked across to his microphone, waiting for the pilot to speak again.

"…_whatever happens…"_

After a dramatic pause, Joker finally finished his sentence. _"… just remember, death begins with you."_

Kaidan furrowed his brow and smiled. Joker was not an easy man to understand. "Thanks," he said. "That's really comforting."

"_That's what you get for breaking my legs."_

"Okay, great. Death begins with me."

"_It sure does," _Joker confirmed.

The voice cut out just in time for Captain Bryant's to replace it. "Alenko," he barked, "this is your first mission in charge, so set a precedent."

"Will do, sir. Are we really here to investigate a murder?"

Bryant paused before answering him. "Not investigate, no. Just bring her in. That's non-negotiable, even if she has the perfect alibi."

"Sir?"

"The killer's name is Ka'hyra Velotto. Dangerous. The turians have been after her for a long time. She's a powerful biotic, a veteran of the War…"

"Yes, sir." Kaidan knew the name. The alien fugitive had become quite famous in recent months since news vid cameras had seen her at the Citadel and linked her with another murder. One of her own kind, though.

"We tracked her here just before this murder took place. The Admirals figured this would be the best opportunity to try out their new magic squad. So be quick about making nice with the colonists, then get out there and find her. Understood?"

Kaidan replied in the affirmative just as the hatch opened, folding down into a corrugated ramp. The three soldiers were surprised by what they saw. Instead of the jagged mountains, dust and fierce winds they were accustomed to, the colony was built on what appeared to be a grassy field. A bright blue sky, clearer than any Kaidan had seen on Earth, hung quietly above a vista of trees, round hills and a collection of clean, white buildings.

"Huh!" Sang's voice rose up behind Kaidan, who was inclined to agree.

With a quick look at each of his men, Kaidan descended and found a middle-aged man in a lab coat waiting for them. The guns clinging to his back battered his shoulders as he jogged over to meet him at the ramp.

"Good morning," said Kaidan. "I'm Second Lieutenant Alenko." He held out a hand, which the scientist shook firmly.

"Serviceman Medina," he replied. "Welcome to Wynn's Cross. Thanks for coming so quickly."

"It was just good luck on your part," Kaidan lied, wincing a little. "We were in the area. We've been briefed on the situation."

Medina nodded, scratching the back of his neck. He looked a little overweight, and stood at a slight angle. Despite his rank, he clearly was no soldier. "The killer was a turian. One of our juniors saw it happen. A really skinny turian, he said. But he disappeared into the forest at the edge of our facility and we couldn't find him afterward."

"No ships have left the planet, serviceman. Our suspect is still planetside. Are there any clues as to this turian's location?"

The scientist beckoned with his hand as he walked off towards the treeline. When they began to hear the crunching sound of dried leaves beneath their feet, Medina stopped the group.

"This message," he said, sweeping the leaves away from a wide, flat tree stump.

Kaidan peered down to see a message, carved in poorly-drawn, slanted English lettering.

_From the tower falls the shadow._

The strange message was written twice, the second carving a mirror image of the first, written upside down and underneath. The marines stared at it for a long time.

"The two F's at the beginning…" said Medina. "They look like an arrow. I'm not sure what he wants, but it certainly seems like he wants us to go to him."

Kaidan nodded at the stump.


	3. Out Beyond the Edge

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Mass Effect: "All Along the Watchtower"

Chapter Two - Out Beyond the Edge

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"_Seems like kind of a dick move,"_ Joker's voice hissed through Kaidan's headset. _"We come all the way out here to this place to rescue them, and they don't even let you see the inside of the facility? That's messed up, if I do say so myself."_

Kaidan shook his head as he would if he was facing his friend, though in fact he was further from him than he had been since their first meeting. He and his squad had set out almost immediately into the forest to find any trace of their turian killer. They were no detectives though. The best they could do was keep moving and look for anything obviously disturbed in the brush.

"I don't blame them," he replied. "It's not like we're visiting an amusement park out here. And I don't think I'd want the tour if they offered it."

"_I know you wouldn't want to, but it's the principle of the thing. If you travel more than a kilometer, let alone a light-year, to solve someone else's problem…then there are some obligations that go with that. Hell, I marched a cup of sugar across Arcturus once, and I got to eat some of the cake it produced."_ Joker sighed loudly. _"I'm gonna bomb 'em."_

"Don't bomb them," Kaidan said. "Just keep an eye to the scanners and if you hear me scream _bloody murder_ over the receiver, you take that ship and you come and get me."

"_Not gonna risk landing in a hot zone just to save an expendable. But you can still scream if you want. I'll play it over the loudspeaker."_

Kaidan almost tripped over a fallen branch. "Thanks…Joker." He mentioned the nickname more to reassure himself than anything.

"_Alright, Alenko,"_ said Joker, chuckling. _"Watch your back out there and keep us updated. Bring me back a souvenir."_

"Yeah, whatever. Over and out." Clicking off the commlink brought the full atmosphere of the forest crashing back to Kaidan's senses. The air was clean, very clean, and was laced with the crisp scent of the leaves that surrounded them. Off in the distance, he could hear all sorts of bird chirps, and the howling of some sort of animal that he wasn't sure he wanted identified.

It had the makings of a pleasant romp through a mostly-untouched scenery, but Kaidan could feel his squadmates' eyes boring into him. Taking a look back, his fears were confirmed. Sang and Brady didn't even try and hide the fact that they were staring.

"Something wrong?" Kaidan asked, making his tone as harsh as he felt was needed.

Sang shook his head. "No, sir. Nothing at all."

The reply annoyed the Lieutenant. He could hear it in the man's voice that there was something to be said, but it was sitting in wait behind rank and bureaucracy. There was only one way to get a straight answer now, but he wasn't sure what else would come pouring out after opening that particular floodgate.

"Speak freely," he said with a concealed wince.

"Are you sure about that, sir?" Sang scoffed "I know I said nothing was wrong, but I don't think it'll be 'nothing' after you hear this."

"I said speak freely," Kaidan snapped. He didn't like being coddled.

Sang cleared his throat, as if he'd been waiting for this moment. "Sir, I guess I just don't like the idea of an L2 being the second-in-command of our unit."

Kaidan stopped walking and turned back to Sang and Brady. "That your opinion?"

"That's the majority opinion, sir. L2s are unstable. You're one of only a handful in the entire Navy, and even as we speak that number is ticking down to nothing. You hear about all kinds of stuff. Demanding reparations, freaking out in the middle of a fight, going rogue. Putting you in charge was irresponsible and foolish."

Brady seemed to be taking pleasure at the tirade his comrade was weaving together. "Not to mention the only good you've done around the ship has been to keep the pilot entertained enough so that he doesn't hobble up to us and chew us out for any little thing."

"Exactly," Sang continued. "Why put you in charge at all if you're just gonna die or fry your brain soon anyway?"

--

"_Just face facts, Alenko, with all the stress you'll be putting on your implants while you're in this unit, you'll be dead or insane by the end of the year. Why not just save yourself, and us, the inconvenience and disappear to a nice, quiet corner of the galaxy to wait it all out?"_

Sang's voice sounded devilish and raspy filtering through the headset. Joker knew he didn't like the guy, but now he was ready to throw a punch or two. He would have turned off the radio a long while back in the argument; he had heard such hurtful and heartless words before. But what kept his attention was the fact that the words weren't being directed at him.

Joker swiveled around in the pilot's seat and steepled his fingers while he thought. He had always quietly questioned the reasons why he and Alenko had been steadily growing closer. Their friendship seemed to have no greater stay in reality than the Loch Ness monster and the abominable snowman joining forces. Its existence just didn't make sense.

But now, as he listened in on the verbal lashing his associate was receiving from those pathetic excuses for soldiers, he could tell that the bond they shared echoed from more than just forgiveness on his part and sympathy on Alenko's. There was that old adage that came to mind: Misery loves company. Alenko was good company.

He imagined he'd ponder it more later. Picking up his crutches, he made his way through the ship. Now was a good time for a restroom break, which would provide an uninterrupted moment for plotting just how he was going to get revenge on Sang and Brady. He could be pretty imaginative with this kind of stuff.

--

Kaidan waited patiently until his squadmates had drained themselves of all that needed to be said. When they fell silent, he went about trying to make sense of it all. He suddenly felt very alone on this mission.

"Those are mostly valid points," he said through an exhale. "I don't think it would be appropriate for me to argue all of them in the middle of a mission." He straightened himself up. "So rest assured that I do not agree with you. I believe that what I am will have no bearing on this mission, and like it or not, you are stuck with me as squad leader for the inevitable future, until I die or the captain finds someone better." His eyes passed back and forth between the men to drive his point home.

"Are we understood?" Kaidan asked in a strict tone of voice.

The pair stood at attention, and saluted in a manner that bordered on mocking. "Sir, understood, sir," they chanted in unison.

"Good. Let's move out." The Lieutenant moved on through the trees. Sang and Brady waited a moment before following.

The team continued their mission wordlessly, their cautious, light steps only adding more to the silence. When Brady yelled, 'Mine!' the squad leader was glad they had gotten their argument out of the way and focused.

"Where, Private?"

"Dead ahead," Brady replied, leaving a little pause in his reply where 'sir' should have been. "on the base of that tall tree, behind the plant."

Kaidan followed the marine's eyeline and saw a tiny metallic glint against the tree's bark. "All right," he said quietly. "Don't move. First we look for more right here, then we make a perimeter and find the next one."

When they had walked a very careful circle around the device, studying every leaf on the ground, Kaidan noticed suddenly that the sky had darkened. It wasn't quite nightfall. The planet that their habitable moon orbited was beginning to pass between them and the sun, creating an eclipse on a gargantuan scale and driving the forest into darkness before the squad was even aware it was dusk.

"_Shiloh to Alenko,"_ Joker's voice rang out, fading toward the end. "Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? Shiloh to Alenko. God."

Kaidan clicked on his headset. "What do you hear, Joker?"

"_Captain says to haul your sorry asses home. We're gonna pack it in and pick up the search tomorrow at first light."_

"Understood," Kaidan replied. "I'm not even sure how we're gonna track our target out here anyway. Wasn't exactly trained as a bounty hunter."

Joker laughed. _"Yeah, well, I'm sure the brass knows that too. In my opinion, we're here for presence and posterity more than anything else. The Alliance has to maintain a good image, even to backwater scientists."_

"Either way, their new biotic unit coming up empty-handed isn't a good way to kick off this shakedown run."

"_I'll wager ten credits the captain didn't even expect you to find anything. I bet that out of the list of prospective missions they could have tossed you magicians at, chasing down another biotic seemed the most appealing."_

Kaidan sighed. "Maybe…"

"_Just get back to the ship. I'm looking for any fauna record we have for this moon, and I'm coming up empty. I'd hate to even think of the nasty creatures that could come out at night here."_

"Alright, I get it."

"_Could be poisonous or rabid."_

"Okay, Joker."

"_Maybe zombies…"_

"Ending transmission," Kaidan said and clicked his headset back off. When he turned to give his squad the news, he found that they were already walking away. "Hey!" he called after the two men, who casually stopped and turned back. "Where do you think you're going?"

Brady shrugged. "We heard it through the comm. We're heading back to base, right?"

"Did I give you that order?" Kaidan asked, disbelieving their gall.

"Does it matter?" Sang asked indifferently. "We heard the orders and we're carrying them out. We're not gonna sit around all day and wait for you to tell us when to jump." He continued walking.

"No, I guess you wouldn't wait for me," Kaidan mused. "But you'd sure as hell wait for the captain." This got the pair to stop again. "Wouldn't you?"

Sang hardly needed time to ponder the question. "Yes," he said. "I'd wait for the captain. I'd go through Hell and back for him, even if that was only half of the mission. And you know why, Alenko?" He took a few steps forward. "Because I respect him. I don't respect you, not even enough to care about what kind of report you'll give when we get back to the ship.

"So, just leave us be until we get out of this forest. Because as far as I'm concerned, I'd rather die that to be under your command any longer." Sang turned to walk away.

Just then, a loud, feminine voice cut through the air.

"_Stop!_"

Sang didn't listen in time and he took another step. They all heard the snap. A second later, a groaning noise grew louder and louder from somewhere in the darkness. Before any of them could draw a weapon, a giant log with a spiked tip roared into view. Sang tried to jump out of the way, but not fast enough, as the spike caught him in the chest. Impaled, his body continued upwards with the tethered log until it slammed him against a nearby tree.

Sang's lifeless corpse tumbled down the tree trunk and flopped onto the ground.

"No!" Brady shouted, and moved to his friend's body with weapon drawn.

Kaidan drew his rifle as well, constantly scanning their surroundings for any sign of movement. "Who's out there?" he bellowed into the dark, his breath hanging in front of him in the cold air.

Static kicked back up in his headset. _"What's going on out there, Alenko?"_ It was Joker again.

"Standby, Joker, we have contact." Kaidan returned his attention to the trees. As he turned one more time, the light at the end of his rifle brought a figure into plain view. And it stood no more than a meter away. "Jesus!" he exclaimed, but his mind quickly fell back into procedure. "Get down on the ground and put your hands behind your head!"

It was the turian. The one they'd been briefed on. She complied with the Lieutenant's orders promptly and dropped to her knees. Looking closely, Kaidan found that she didn't have any sort of weapon on her person. She was just a pale brown turian with a shapely form, wearing nothing more than a tunic of tattered linens.

"Why did you kill him?" Kaidan demanded loudly, though his shouting didn't seem to scare the woman in the least bit.

"I didn't kill him," she corrected. "If you remember correctly, I tried to warn him. Though, given the hate that he was so busy directing towards you, I'm not surprised that he instinctively ignored me."

Hearing this, Brady left Sang's body and jammed the barrel of his rifle into the side of the turian's head. She moved her head sideways to cushion the blow, and gave a look of tired irritation.

"Let's just kill her now. Self-defense. Right, Alenko?"

Kaidan had calmed down enough to find such an idea ludicrous. "No, Brady, stand down. She'll get her Arbitration when we get her back to Arcturus."

Brady's eyes wandered between their prisoner and his squad leader, but he eventually, if very reluctantly, lowered his weapon. The private was plenty stupid, but he didn't have as much guts as his fallen squadmate.

"Alright," Kaidan said and pulled out his handcuffs. "Ma'am, you are under arrest for the murders at Wynn's Cross. Under the Quietus Act, you have the right to remain silent during these proceedings, but anything said can and will be used as evidence against your case while engaged in Arbitration."

"By the book," the turian commended him. "But you didn't sound very confident when you said that. Is this your first mission?"

"No, it isn't," Kaidan replied.

"Oh. Second?"

Kaidan groaned as he latched the handcuffs on the woman's arms. "If you'll follow us out of the forest now, we have a ship waiting."

"I don't suppose it will make a difference if I tell you that what I've done at Wynn's Cross was completely justified, will it?"

"Not likely."

"The needs of the flesh don't often disappear in isolation, no matter how many coats of white paint you cover your facility in," she said. "Did they tell you what those men were doing when they died? _Who_ they were doing?"

Kaidan picked the woman up onto her feet and motioned for Brady to take the lead. "It doesn't make a difference, miss."

"It does to those young women I saved. You know, they actually thanked me when I killed those men. They were lucky that this place was the closest rock with an atmosphere. Didn't hear much about that from dear old Medina, did you? Did he tell you anything about the, uh… victims?"

Before Kaidan could formulate some kind of response, Joker's voice cracked through his headset again.

"_Alenko, what the hell's going on out there?"_

"Sang's been killed in action, Joker," Kaidan reported. "We have the turian in custody and we're heading back to the ship now."

"_Sang's gone. Oh, no."_ Joker's voice came out in a high-pitched whine that hardly resembled sympathy._ "Just get the prisoner back to the ship and we'll get a detail out for the body in the morning. Be careful out there, Alenko. Keep a close eye on the turian."_

Kaidan nodded. "Alenko out." He placed pressure on the woman's back and flipped the safety off the pistol in his other hand. "Keep moving," he said.

The turian didn't resist. Though, as they continued on through the forest, her pace slowed. Her attention was taken by the stars and the pitch black void that the nearby planet created in the night sky. As she scanned the scene, the mandibles on the sides of her face fluttered a bit.

"You don't seem to be one for answers," she said, "but do you want to know why I let you catch me?"

Kaidan sighed. "Fine."

"I followed you for some time through this forest. I can honestly say that there's honesty in your voice. Immutable dedication to justice and your concepts of humanity. Do you know why?"

"Why?" Kaidan figured if he humored the prisoner, she'd be easier to deal with.

"Because you're broken, Alenko. And you fight for that which can make you whole."

"Just because you can eavesdrop, doesn't mean you know a thing about me."

The turian giggled slightly. The strange sound made Kaidan squint without realizing; he had never heard a female turian's voice, and certainly never a turian laugh. "There are many wondrous variables in this galaxy" she continued. "Some that will never be contained or understood, but behavior is not one of these. It is simple and it is obvious. Your eyes can reveal more truth about you than even the most detailed of memoirs. And the sooner you realize this, the sooner you'll find the redemption that you endlessly seek."

Kaidan scoffed. "What makes you think I have to be redeemed? I've never committed a crime."

"Is it always an outright unlawful action that causes the break in the chain? That's a little… what's the phrase… _black and white_, even for you. The most grievous of sins one can commit in this life are not always put to law. In my eyes, you have the look of a man who's looking for forgiveness and can't find it anywhere he looks."

Kaidan didn't answer.

"I only hope you're still able to find it," she continued. "Because things are about to become a lot more complicated for you and yours."

"What do you mean by that?" Kaidan snapped. "Have more traps set up for us somewhere out here?"

The woman shook her hard head and smiled. The perfect circles of her sky blue eyes caught his attention with something resembling mischief, but not quite. She looked unhappy. "My name is Ka'hyra, and I'm not the murderer you believe me to be. In fact, by the end of tomorrow's sun, I will probably be your only hope for surviving the storm that will surely come."


	4. A Turian's Back

* * *

Mass Effect: "All Along the Watchtower"

Chapter Three – A Turian's Back

* * *

"We do not have time for this," Ka'hyra said to the soldier cuffing her. The young man turned his wheat-haired head to protest, but a glance from Captain Bryant turned it back again.

"What's your hurry, Velotto?" he asked, as curious as he was annoyed by her words.

"Trouble's coming."

"For you, or us?"

Ka'hyra showed a little frustration in her face, very lightly so that a human could not read the emotion, but Bryant smiled at her. Behind her back, she fiddled with her handcuffs, easing her anger with an attempt to break their locking mechanism.

"They will come for both of us, now that you've captured me. They'll find out what you are, or what your men are, at least, and they'll want you dead, too. The spirit of this ship is not as well-concealed as you may think. I should not have come with you."

Bryant stared, waiting for more explanation to convince him, but found only prolonged eye contact, which she broke off when it became embarrassing for them both.

"Well, outcast, that is fascinating," he told her, taking a little glee from the anger the word caused. "And for this very vague reason, you want my men to leave their fallen comrade behind?"

She shook her head. "I want them to run. I would not have your Chief's body lay there in the forest, but we _do not have time f…_"

Bryant turned away, silencing her. "Alenko, tell them to get a move on, just in case." With a nod, Kaidan jogged away to the comms room.

Kaidan was somewhat unaccustomed to the array of equipment in the tiny cabin, being usually on the receiving end of communications. After a few moments he recognized the key sequence and got through to the team leader's helmet radio.

"This is Lieutenant Alenko," he said, keeping his tone reverential. There was no response from the others, which hardly surprised him. Perhaps they blamed him, or maybe they didn't like taking orders from an L2 either. It didn't matter which right now. He continued, "I don't like telling you this, but you need to move as fast as possible, even after you've recovered the body. We're in a hurry. Captain's orders."

The communications channel abruptly cut out, and Kaidan decided to leave it at that. They had been told, but he still wondered _why_ this had to be rushed. When he had seen the captain and his prisoner speaking, the sense of urgency in her alien voice was clear to everyone in the room. She was expecting trouble. And somehow she had figured out that Kaidan and his fellow crewmen were biotics. But she wouldn't explain herself.

Without too much haste, he made his way back to Bryant's modest quarters, remembering Sang and hoping the duty of notifying his next of kin would not fall on his shoulders. When he entered he found his commanding officer and the turian still arguing.

"He goes by the name, Tarius," Ka'hyra was saying, resting her hunched back against a wall.

"Tarius? As in, Tarius Soletian?"

"You like to use last names, captain. Yes, _Soletian_. Another outcast, by your terms."

"I know of him."

"Yes, very good, captain," Ka'hyra sighed. Her turian vocal chords made it sound as if she were sighing twice. "I'm terribly impressed." Kaidan hoped that the little contest between the two would end now that one had become sick of it.

Ka'hyra folded her arms, scratching one with the other as she did. "Tarius was, as I'm sure you know, a fine general with the armada. One day he turned and vanished, betraying his rank and my people. Now he is a wandering murderer."

With a disbelieving raise of his eyebrow, Bryant cut her off. "Sounds familiar," he said.

"It matters very little how I am perceived by the galaxy, so long as I can assist in its healing," Ka'hyra replied. There was a softness to her voice that had not been there before. "Call me a murderer if you will, but I'll have to respectfully disagree. I may have left the Hierarchy, but I do more good on my own."

"You did some great work out there on the colony," Kaidan blurted out, surprising himself.

"I'm truly sorry about your chief, however much both of us may have resented him. But we would both do well to resolve this false guilt." She looked intently at Kaidan for a moment, but he was too stunned to react. Bryant let it go, too, so she spoke again. "I deeply regret his death. Those traps were there for Tarius' men. I was not expecting a human biotic squad to arrive, let alone so quickly."

"About that!" Kaidan spat again, this time with more confidence. "How did you figure out what we are? None of us used any biotic abilities down there, and I know we didn't talk about it."

Ka'hyra said simply, "It's very obvious from your demeanor, lieutenant. It's in your stance and in your stride; someone whose body is still adapting to the implants you rely on. And to mention the obvious, when you brought me to your captain, your right arm glowed blue. A reflex action I suppose."

Kaidan stepped back a little and exhaled a breath he had been holding without realizing. "Oh."

Bryant gave Kaidan a little nod to quiet him, and told the turian, "You can explain your good deeds at the colony when we get you into custody on Palaven. I was hoping you'd be tried by a human court, but it seems the brass want you to answer for your record on your home planet. Be assured what you did to those scientists, and to our chief, will be included in the list of charges."

Looking at Kaidan, Ka'hyra said, "There was no other way for them. What I saw and discovered about the… leaders of that colony was horrible, and they needed to be stopped. It was my only option."

Kaidan blinked, refusing to speak to her again. Though he could not agree with her reasoning, he could see she was genuine. Turians were not known to lie, and tended to be bad at it. This strange, nomadic woman was a killer, certainly, but one with a purpose, and evidently a moral code. Whatever she had been running away from, the scientists she killed had nothing to do with it.

"Would you have had me let those women suffer? Leave their tormentors to carry on until _maybe _somebody else noticed?" she asked, as if reading his thoughts. "If I had known an Alliance patrol was headed in, I would have spared th…"

"Alenko!" Bryant barked, loud enough to gain her attention as well as his. "Get out of here and wait for the team to get back." Again Kaidan nodded, turned and left.

--

The half hour it took for the return of the squad was a somber one, and when they returned with the body, draped with a sheet they had taken with them, the mood onboard darkened even further. Even Joker showed a little respect by saying nothing of it when Kaidan came to the cockpit after the body had been stored.

"Okay, Joker," he said a little wearily. "Let's go. Captain wants us inside Palaven's atmosphere and fast. He's talking to the ports now. Says he'll radio through and tell us where to land."

"Yeah, all right," Joker said absently. "Where's the turian? Locked up some place?"

"The captain left a team with her. I don't think he wants her around me."

This was enough to rouse Joker from his trance. Suddenly energized, he smoothly lifted _Shiloh_ off the ground and began to turn her around on her horizontal axis. "Why not?" he asked, curious.

Kaidan placed his hand over a button for the sheer hell of it. Sometimes he helped Joker fly the ship, but he knew it wasn't necessary. The pilot was humoring him, really. "She keeps trying to get in my head. She's very… odd. Talks in riddles, you know?" A thought came to him and he manually angled the rear lift, to give an extra kick to their ascent, earning a murmur of approval for his efforts.

Responding to the move, Joker leaned the ship forward and shot it gracefully upwards. Kaidan watched the strip of glass at his knees, slightly disoriented as he saw the sky drop away, as if it was tired of holding itself up. After a while, the view was pure, stationary black, and he felt a little more at ease.

Joker was smiling now. "I'm glad we're out of that atmosphere," he said to himself. "Okay, we're en route to the Relay. Beginning acceleration."

"Good."

Joker stretched his arms and back, and made a satisfying _crack_ beneath his collar bone. He noticed Kaidan jump a little, and a startled look slap itself to his face. He was used to this reaction from most people. Whenever anything snapped or cracked in his presence, people would stare at him with their mouths open for a few seconds. The lieutenant was a particularly jumpy kind of guy, so he almost expected it, but after the mission he was especially tense.

Kaidan noticeably sighed as he rested back into his seat, and Joker silently chuckled. "So," he said, lazily rolling the word around in his mouth, "what does a female turian look like? I mean, I'm just curious, you know! We didn't have a lot of aliens visiting us back home on Arcturus, and the only ones we saw were guys."

There was a little, embarrassed pause, which Joker enjoyed thoroughly. "What do they _look_ like?" he repeated, with some incredulity.

"I just mean… I don't know if they're lizards, or birds or… I mean do they have…?"

"Joker, what're you talking about?"

Kaidan's honest voice suggested a hint of a smile so the pilot decided to run with it. Coughing to announce himself, Joker raised his head a little and forced Kaidan to make eye contact.

"I mean, you know, are they _mammals?_" He brought both his hands up and made squeezing motions near the top of his chest.

Kaidan actually laughed, a single short burst that conveyed his guilty pleasure and the outrage he felt was necessary. Joker joined in, his high-pitched victory laugh lasting a moment longer.

"You have a weird sense of humor, Joker," Kaidan muttered. His voice was still stuck between amusement and disgust, but he seemed more relaxed than when he came in.

Joker sat back. Scanning his eyes across his readouts to check that all was well, he suddenly soured his expression.

"Hey Alenko," he muttered.

Kaidain sighed, his moment of peace interrupted. "Oh God, what now?"

"Alenko, look. We got an incoming craft. Not Alliance. Unregistered." Moving his fingers with instinct alone so that he had room to think, Joker punched up an image of the ship and transferred it to Kaidan's monitor. "It's turian," he said. "Looks like one of their old Randoc Threes, but modified."

"Oh," Kaidan replied. "Good."

"I don't think so. This doesn't look like any turian cruiser I've ever seen, and it's gaining on us. You think maybe our guest had some friends looking to get her out of trouble?"

Kaidan paused, speechless and shocked by the development. Could Ka'hyra have been lying about the whole thing? Suddenly, he remembered something she had said. He heard Joker radio the captain, demanding, rather disrespectfully, that he should join them. And then he saw something move on the little video feed in front of him.

"Did you see that?" Kaidan yelped.

Joker threw his attention at his own monitors but before he could mouth a response the ship was buffeted by an impact above them.

The ship was quick to stabilize as Joker's fingers raced across the console. All trace of calm within the cockpit was banished away under the oscillating tune of proximity and damage alarms. Before long, they were back to status quo. The pilot's eyes communicating nothing but absolute focus.

"What _was_ that?" Kaidan asked through panicked breaths.

"Torpedo," Joker said quickly. "Good one, too. Hurt our barriers. Activat…" his voice trailed off as he began hitting more buttons.

"Activating what?" Kaidan demanded.

"God, Alenko!" the pilot was grinning again, but not wasting any time by looking at him. "Activating Gardian, all right? Jeez. Do I have to explain everything I'm doing to you?"

Kaidan saw another torpedo on his screen. Figuring he could at least serve as an extra pair of eyes whilst Joker concentrated on evading enemy fire, he opened his mouth to alert the other man of the danger. Before he had formed a word, a ray of pure, clean light appeared between the missile and the edge of the screen and quickly vanished. The projectile exploded, its pieces floating away harmlessly.

All Alliance ships bigger than fighters were equipped with a General Area Defensive Integration Anti-spacecraft Network, known to the rank and file as a Gardian. Kaidan figured the unnecessarily long name was given to the system in order to facilitate the acronym. _Shiloh_ was not meant for combat; even for a frigate it was small, so it had nothing beyond the GARDIAN and a standard kinetic barrier for protection. A single sluggish torpedo cannon served as the vessel's method of attack, and it would be useless at this range.

The door shot open, and Bryant marched through. Ka'hyra followed, frowning in concentration.

"Moreau, do we have our shields and Gardian up?" the captain snapped.

"Yes sir," Joker answered quietly. It annoyed him that he was not allowed to concentrate on planning evasive maneuvers but apparently had to provide a running commentary to the senior crew.

"Now one of you three had better tell me who's attacking us."

Ka'hyra spoke up. "There are many threats to peace in this galaxy, captain. I warned you of the one immediate danger to your crew, and now you display confusion when the enemy is at your door?"

The captain's body tensed with anger. His eyes showed evidence of an outburst that could take form at any moment. But he expertly restrained himself. Saying, "Humor me."

"Indeed," she began. "That's Tarius' ship out there, captain. I had been trailing it for weeks, but when they became aware of my presence it didn't take long for the tables to turn. I managed to escape, just barely, and ditch on your colony's moon."

The turian sighed, watching all her plans fall by the wayside. "I had hoped they would find me before anyone else did."

Bryant managed to show a hint of appeasement. "Finally, I get some answers from you, turian," he snarled. "Carry on. What does he want with you?"

"For the exact reasons, I do not know. Turian biotics are a rare thing, as you've most definitely been briefed on in my case." Ka'hyra pondered on the captain's question further, as if she still didn't have an answer, even for herself. "He simply wants nothing more than the complete eradication of our kind. That's what drives him. Keeps him on the run. And allows him to attack Alliance ships with abandon, I'm afraid."

Kaidan's ears followed the conversation while he watched missile after missile being obliterated by the automatic, precision aim of the Gardian lasers. Joker was lost in concentration beside him, flipping the ship sideways and diving backwards with such grace that neither Ka'hyra or Bryant had even noticed.

"Get to the point," Bryant said sharply.

Ka'hyra looked placid. "There is no point, captain. There is only us before the gun and no reason why the trigger must be pulled. If I had all the answers, you wouldn't have found me hiding on a human moon."

The floor juddered slightly, and everyone looked at Joker.

"Are we hit?" said Bryant.

"No, sir. We dodged. Normally you don't feel anything when I change direction, but that was close." A flash of silver appeared in the little window, but nobody saw it.

"I need more," Bryant said, ignoring Joker's smart remark and returning his attention to Ka'hyra, who was resting her back against the wall. "How many ships?"

"Just the one. He calls it the _Pathfinder_. If he has a base of operations, I don't know where it is. That's what I was hoping to find by tracking it for so long."

"Got their engines," Joker said calmly, grabbing everyone's attention again. Kaidan nodded to the captain, a little embarrassed by the other's cocky attitude.

While the two standing had been talking, and Kaidan had been watching and monitoring the laser defenses, Joker had maneuvered _Shiloh_ beneath the faster, stronger ship, dodged three close-range missiles and launched his own missile into a bank of the _Pathfinder_'s fusion torch engines.

"That'll slow them down," Joker announced through smugly-curled lips. "I can get us into FTL speeds and through the Relay before they get back up."

"I must disagree with you in that regard," Ka'hyra said solemnly. "Human, you will only see a turian's back when he is dead."

Joker nodded and extended his bottom lip. He liked a challenge.


	5. A Shot in the Dark

* * *

Mass Effect: "All Along the Watchtower"

Chapter Four – A Shot in the Dark

* * *

The redundant, infuriating ringing continued. It cracked through Tarius' mind and brought him tumbling back to the reality before him. His claws scratched his frustration into the steel flooring and he felt as though his fangs might splinter by the very anger that clenched his jaw shut. To save his teeth and clear his head, he simply roared into the cockpit of his ship.

This was not the way things were supposed to go.

The turian pushed himself onto his feet. Emitting a low growl, he made his way through the sparks and exposed wiring that had pushed through the walls by his sides and approached the pilot. Whatever the Alliance ship had hit them with, it had been devastating. And it should have never happened. The pilot was still stunned; hunched over the console his face had smacked into with small drops of blood falling from his mandibles.

"How?" Tarius hissed. "How did you let that happen?"

The pilot managed to pull himself out of his stupor enough to wheeze out his defense. "Alliance frigates don't maneuver…don't maneuver like that." He began to pass out again. "Ever…"

Tarius brought the turian pilot's head tilting back over the seat so they could look eye-to-eye. "Did you not hear my orders while this _ordeal_ was taking place? That vessel led you into a trap! A wide arc to lure gullible pilots in close so they could get a clean shot. And it worked, at that!" His claws pressed in on each side of the pilot's face. He needed some outlet for his anger, and this was his favourite so far. "Even if experience tells you differently, what made you think my orders carried no weight here? You are free of the Hierarchy, pilot, but on this ship, you're _my_ thrall. You know how I like to talk about this sort of thing. How did you _fail to take it in?_"

The pilot's heavy, foggy head just couldn't find the words. He fought the wanting to black out and his eyes struggled to not roll back into his head. "They don't…They don't maneuver like that, sir…"

Tarius' eye twitched. "Of course, they don't." He looked around the shattered cockpit to make a silent point. "Of course they don't. Ka'hyra Velotto doesn't usually fly them, after all." He violently whipped the pilot's head further back over the seat, snapping his neck before any protest arose. The body jumped into spasms and flopped neatly onto the floor.

"Another pilot!" Tarius shouted in the corridor. Nearly instantly, another young turian entered the cockpit.

"Sir," the replacement said with a professional salute. "We were able to get most of the primary systems back online. But we'll be working with drift on our x-axis." He quickly took up the pilot's seat, sidestepping around the body as he did. "It'll be tough, but we can give chase—"

"If you were about to give me options, I assure you, there are _none_," Tarius snapped. "Get us back into firing range! I want that vessel destroyed, and I want to see its crew's space-frozen bodies pulverized into shine-matter!"

The engines were back online, and he could see the stars around them begin to shift away behind the viewports. The _Pathfinder_ left no loose ends. He knew Ka'hyra was aboard that vessel. Invisible to his crew, the dark energy that shadowed him rippled with disruption. Another powerful biotic was near. A presence he had not felt since the end of his old life

--

Joker angled the _Shiloh_'s approach only a little bit so that he could see, through his viewport, the bright metallic shine against the curtain of blackness. The telltale blue-tinted gleam of a Mass Relay. He couldn't help but feel lighter in his stomach every time he saw one of the alien constructs.

"It won't be too long now, sir," he whispered to his view.

"Good," Captain Bryant said with a nod. "How many jumps between us and Palaven?"

Joker looked over his readout. "Four if we're going by the books," he said. "Three if you want to get naughty."

The captain made no move to hide his conflicted reaction. "Just get us there quick, Moreau. I leave it entirely in your hands."

"Does that mean any punishment from trespassing on _hmmhmm_ space will fall to me?"

"Like I said, just get us there. This prisoner's leading trouble around with her and I won't have that burden on our shoulders for much longer." Bryant turned to leave the cockpit. "Call me when we're on final approach."

"Aye, Cap," Joker said with a salute.

Captain Bryant hardly had a foot out of the room when a proximity alarm flared up behind him. Joker swiveled around in his chair and said, "Captain, please report to the cockpit."

"What is it?" Bryant demanded with a tone that suggested he didn't appreciate the humor.

The pilot turned back to his console. "Trouble, closing fast on our six." He growled. "The damn she-turian was right."

--

The _Shiloh_ didn't have much of a brig, though it was bigger than the bunk space the crew was allotted. Soldiers were known for stealing naps in the wide-open space, and for the resulting pranks that typically ended with the cell being locked up. However this was the familiar price for serving aboard an Alliance warship; there was room enough to do one's job, but little else.

Kaidan slid the cell door open. "In you go,' he requested of the turian prisoner. "And don't even think of using your biotics to escape. The escape pods are coded and there will be an entire squad of L3's between you and anywhere else."

He slid the door shut. Ka'hyra laughed under her breath. "That's not entirely true, is it?"

"It's more than true. None of the soldiers onboard are very pleased with the chief's death. All it will take is one wrong move on your part to bring that particular storm bearing down on you like…"

"No, no, no. That's not what I meant," she said. "About the L3's. That's not exactly the _entire_ squad, is it? You failed to mention the crown jewel, as it were."

"I don't…"

"Anyone who has become sensitive to dark energy disrupts the space around them with that connection," Ka'hyra explained. "The _entire_ squad aboard this ship has a nice, stable output. But _you_, however, are latched onto subspace like a jaw-trap on an animal's leg. Your output is raw and intense. I don't feel a steady breeze in your wake, I feel a sandstorm."

Kaidan shrugged. "I suppose that would be on account of my dated implants."

"An L2."

"Yeah. An L2. So what?"

The turian looked over Kaidan with a confused gaze. "You don't seem to be as impressed with your abilities as I am."

"Why should I be impressed with something I didn't ask for?"

"What?" Ka'hyra was genuinely aghast. "Oh, Kaidan. If only the sails guided the wind and not the other way around. Wouldn't that be a marvelous day?"

Kaidan rubbed his forehead. The day had taken more from him than it had promised and he just wanted to relax and take stock of it all. Kaidan could deal with as much pressure as any man or woman in the Alliance Navy, but he didn't like being rushed. Battles were quick and decisive, and he had learned to deal with that back before he signed up. He could fight for his life quite well. But he disliked arguments. He fared poorly if he did not have time to consider every viewpoint fairly and work out the best answer. Ka'hyra evidently didn't care to waste time when making up her mind.

"I don't know why I keep bothering with you." He honestly didn't. "If you knew what I've gone through because of this implant configuration, you wouldn't be giving me a smug lecture about my destiny."

The turian pressed herself up against the door. "As long as there is light in this existence we all share, then we are bound, by law, to walk in the shadows as well. Don't make the mistake of thinking your life is more troubled than another simply because you have to live it."

"I was _tortured!_" Kaidan shouted, slamming his fist against the door. "Three years of ignorance, death, and the knowledge that I might as well be a monster in quarantine! You _cannot_ possibly know!"

Again, Ka'hyra looked quizzically into Kaidan's very form, as if she were searching for something she couldn't find. All at once, it came to her, and her hand flew up to her mouth, pointing. "You were on _Jump Zero_."

Kaidan's arm was consumed in dark blue vapors of energy. His eyes itched with anger and his body tensed as it anticipated the act that he knew he could not follow through with. He quickly turned away and left the brig behind, knowing that staying there any longer could mean something regrettable. Kaidan was losing his grip today, but he still had enough military training left in him to walk away from the prisoner's irritating tone.

The turian woman called after him. "I know what you are, Kaidan! I have answers that you seek. Please return to me soon!" But Kaidan was already gone behind a hatch at the end of the corridor.

--

"Activating the Mass Relay," Joker said, sending the signal to the construct that would ready it for the _Shiloh_'s jump. Beeps of confirmation merged with proximity alarms and made the atmosphere within the cockpit more chaotic than it needed to be. But Joker kept his calm, adjusted the ship's pitch and spun her downwards out of the way of a magspec missile. When the projectile lost its target, it self-destructed and bumped the _Shiloh_ off course for a moment.

"I need Alenko up here," Joker told the captain, as he directed the ship back on the correct heading.

Bryant took up the copilot's seat. "He's down with the prisoner. What do you need? I can help."

"No offense, but that's a matter of opinion, sir."

"Dammit, Joker, tell me what you need me to do—Jesus!" The captain braced himself in his seat as Joker snapped the ship into a tight spin. They spun over and over with thrusters running hot and the stars in the viewports, blending into a spiral. Another alarm clicked on, alerting the pilots to a shift in the artificial gravity field. The captain felt butterflies in his stomach for the first time in years.

The second missile passed by and detonated harmlessly in the distance. Joker leveled the ship out, and the settling gravity field nearly knocked Bryant from his seat.

"Don't do that again," the captain growled, his skin flushed.

Joker shrugged and took his hands off the console. "If that's an order, sir, I hope you like being dead."

"Look! Just…I'll go get Alenko…"

"No need, sir," Kaidan said as he entered the cockpit. "What do you need, Joker?"

A small grin crawled up the side of Joker's face. "I need you to talk me out of attempting what I'm about to do."

Kaidan relieved the captain from the copilot's seat. "What are you talking about?"

"I can't make the jump through the Mass Relay if I have to dodge all these missiles."

"What about going to light speed? Maybe we could lose them that way."

Joker shook his head. "Maybe if they were a few minutes behind us, but they're right on our tail. They'd just follow us through any jump we'd make. No, the Mass Relay's our only shot."

"What do you want me to do then?"

"Take over Gardian duties while I do this."

Kaidan was punched a few buttons and got Gardian warmed up. He was clearly frustrated; punching in the commands as if he was trying to break the console. "This'll be the second time you've asked me to use this thing. You know there are others on this ship with more training with Gardian than I'll ever have."

"Yeah, but the rest of the crew tends to piss me off rather easily," Joker replied. "Kinda sucks all the motivation out of the room when you're trying to save a ship filled with people you'd much rather see stepped out into the cold vacuum." He turned back to Captain Bryant. "Don't worry, cap'n, you're alright in my book."

Bryant nodded hesitantly, almost smiling. "Glad to know you'd rather not eject me into space." He pointed towards the viewport. "Get us out of here, Moreau. That's an order."

"Aye, sir." Joker's indifferent tone belied the flight plan within his head. He made no moves to prepare himself and there was not a sound or warning that came from him. Just calm, steady breathing, as if he engaged in frenzied chases with terrorist starships twice a day.

All he offered was a smile, directed out through the viewport and toward the active Mass Relay, which pulsed brightly with dark energy as its gyroscopic capacitors began to draw upon the element zero core within. The construct lit up; faint signs of a mass effect field surrounding it, which reached out and subtly vibrated the hull of the ship beneath Joker's feet.

"The Relay is hot," Joker said. And there was no more warning.

He turned the _Shiloh_ downward, letting it drift helplessly towards the alien superstructure until he slammed on the thrusters, causing the ship to do an inverted backflip over the top of the Relay and down into the shadow of the thing. Explosions followed close behind them as the magspec missiles from the turian ship lost their lock and self-destructed.

The concussions slammed into _Shiloh_, sending her into a spin down and across the width of the Relay. Joker had planned on this. He used the raw momentum from it; letting it sling the ship down at a random trajectory. This interfered with the next set of missiles' approach, giving Kaidan just enough time to take them both out with Gardian. The concussion sent them careening in a different direction, across the opening of the Relay that housed the capacitors and the element zero core, and into a rapid spin that shifted the gravity more than ever before.

Kaidan was feeling motion sickness creep up on him. He turned to the viewport, but only saw flashes of space and metal that blurred together into static. His mind raced harder than he could manage, his body rocked around in his seat. Passing out seemed like a very good idea.

Joker turned briefly and saw this. "Alenko!" he shouted as loud as he could manage. "Keep your eyes on the console and not on the viewport! I don't want you going space crazy on my watch."

"I can't…" Kaidan's vision blurred. "I can't see anything."

"Alenko, _now_!"

Kaidan reflexively activated Gardian. The bright beam of light swept across space in their death spiral, grazing the starboard engines of the turian vessel—the _Pathfinder_, Ka'hyra had called it. What a silly name, he thought. What a damn silly name these aliens give their…

He turned to Joker. "_Shiloh_'s a stupid name, Jokey," he slurred before losing balance and dropping his head loudly onto the console.

Joker smiled. "That'll do, Kaid. That'll do."

The _Shiloh_ continued its erratic spin, with Joker gently guiding it into position via maneuvering thrusters. They came around in a wide arc back into the sunlight once again. He only had the span of a second in which to react, and he was able to hit that mark better than he believed he could. The ship aligned with the proper jump coordinates and the Mass Relay propelled her into a mass effect field and out across the galaxy. He laughed.

--

Tarius watched the Alliance vessel disappear from the radar in an instant, as if the machine were faulty. Moving only his eyes he glanced out of his wide viewing window and confirmed the readout.

All aboard the _Pathfinder_ felt the momentum on their shoulders as the mighty battleship slowed its breakneck pursuit and began to aim more sensibly for the Relay. The room fell silent and everyone but Tarius found something to do. For the moment, he needed to think. This was taking far too long. Mistakes had been made and he had been, to some extent, defeated.

When he began to apportion blame, he stopped himself, amused. He had not felt this overly-familiar mix of bitterness, tension and guilt in a long while. Not since his last mission with the fleet, in fact. Especially for a female, Ka'hyra had done a fine job of eluding him.

He had captured battlemasters and Matriarchs since the maiden voyage of the Pathfinder, but only now did he find his first challenge. Only now that he hunted a lunatic female and her human rescue ship.

Flashes of electric blue light shot upwards through the viewport and washed over Tarius' face. With each he found motivation to slow his breathing. One of the men seated at his side grunted very slightly as a spark bit into his leather cheek. The commander's hands reflexively balled into fists before one of them relaxed and reached for the pistol at his side.

"Another pilot!" he called through his throat, and a few seconds later he was able to concentrate fully on his retribution.


	6. Respite and Relaxation

* * *

Mass Effect: "All Along the Watchtower"

Chapter Five – Respite and Relaxation

* * *

The Palavian sun calmly sank down through a deep sky, burying itself behind rolling green hills and scattered collections of ancient temples that reached far into the air. The more the sun fell, the more the sky became layered in almost perfect stripes of color, from the red canopy to the ochre horizon. No breeze disturbed the flat, ordered warmth, and even the occasionally-falling lilac-colored blossoms from the nearby gardens respectfully avoided his boots as they fell. Lee Bryant was content.

The turian homeworld was a beautiful place, and in a way he was glad that he had been forced to fly his crew here. Though he would have preferred to have Velotto tried by an Alliance court, he knew at least that the turian Hierarchy would sentence her fairly. They might be harsher, in fact. Lately the Alliance seemed deathly afraid of upsetting the Council races. Here on Palaven, Velotto would at the very least get a good stretch of hard labor.

This was Bryant's third visit to the serene port facilities of Aihus City. For the moment he had to wait while his unscheduled arrival was dealt with by the authorities. The _SSV Shiloh_ sat behind him on the open landing pad, resting as he was, and ahead of him he saw a turian woman, shorter than average with fair grey skin and arms held together in front of her waist. When he had disembarked, Bryant had been told by this pleasant sentry that he and his men were not permitted to pass through the corridor she stood by. As long as there was fresh air and comfortable seating here in the docking bay's outdoor lounge, that was just fine with him.

The turian girl had even apologized for not being able to provide drinks suitable for human consumption while the crew waited. Bryant had actually smiled then and he dismissed her. Compared to the state of living on the _Shiloh_ or the conditions of any Alliance waiting room he had seen, this was luxury.

Most of his crew were outside, too, enjoying the unscheduled stop and treating it like shore leave. Ahead of him he saw Private Young admiring the modest pastel view beyond the dock, and 'Joker' Moreau bothering her. Frankly, Bryant was surprised that it had taken so long before one of his male crewmen started sniffing around her. Young was the only woman onboard, and one of the few female biotics presently enlisted. He knew a few of the L2's had been women, but at last report, none of them had made it to active duty. They had all gone AWOL, snapped or died, like all but a few of the men.

Young was pretty for a soldier. Her features were the common mix of African and Mexican, but she wore them well. Moreau, hindered by leg braces and crutches, was still a few steps behind her, but he was gaining fast. Bryant didn't know whether to intervene or not. The brash, cocky pilot's demeanor would no-doubt make for a bad first impression, as it did with everyone he met, but Bryant was already starting to like him. Maybe he would grow on her, too.

It had been a wise move, bringing that one in. He figured Moreau was one of two 'wild cards' in his crew. He had been through a couple of disciplinary procedures on his previous ships, both military and governmental, but his service record and Academy scores simply spoke for themselves. Of course, he had proven himself already in the escape from the _Pathfinder_. The kid would have more freedoms under Bryant's command, but he'd know about it if he stepped out of line. The captain expected this relationship to work out pretty well.

The other wild card, of course, was his best lieutenant. Kaidan Alenko was a strange, quiet young man who could be trusted but not relied upon. In this way he contrasted with every one of the L3 biotics in the Cabal, and that was precisely why Bryant had picked him out as a leader. Alenko's soul was pure and honest and these cocky kids from the Academy would do well to learn from a good man who came out of a torture camp with enough confidence to re-enlist.

The new biotics were weaker but had no side-effects, and there was no arguing that this was for the best, but there was one big problem with all of them. They all thought they were supermen, when really they were just twenty-something FNG's with some clever tricks. If they ever accepted Alenko as their leader rather than fearing and shunning him, they could learn a lot about soldiering.

"Captain Bryant?" said a soft, two-tone voice, and his head snapped upward to see the eyes of their host.

"Your arrival has been cleared," she said nodding a little. "We have made arrangements for you to travel to the city centre and the Judiciary Temples today. When you're ready, a transport will be waiting."

"Thank you, citizen," he replied. He was impressed by the trouble the girl had gone to, and thought she deserved the compliment.

"I will be just outside the bay, if you have any questions. Welcome to Aihus City, sir."

This time he nodded to her, and she stepped away before he turned back to the ship. He needed to escort his irritating prisoner to jail. Hopefully as Ka'hyra Velotto vanished from his workload, so would the lone warship ship that had given chase before that first relay.

As he marched across the white, matte flooring, Bryant casually selected the soldiers he would bring along with him. Alenko, certainly, just in case the prisoner made a run for it, and a couple more. Maybe he ought to take Young, so as to give her a break from Joker, who was still bothering her.

Whoever he selected, he hoped they would enjoy the city as much as he did. Because of First Contact, most Alliance personnel still had a lot of misconceptions about the turians. All they ever saw of them were tough pirates and the occasional angry, barking general. Their home planet, though, revealed a side to them that humans usually chose to ignore. Their uniquely ordered and regimented, yet beautiful and serene home was truly a marvel. Even this room held more serenity and beauty than any Alliance station or colony world, except maybe Eden Prime. The air here, in a docking bay no less, was cleaner and sweeter than any that could be found on Earth.

At an even pace Bryant strolled into _Shiloh's_ boarding corridor and waited for the scans to start. Despite the vessel's disastrous mission, he felt thoroughly replenished.

--

"Good morning, captain," Ka'hyra said distantly as Bryant found her in the cargo hold, watched by Alenko, who offered no greeting.

The lieutenant looked rough. His usually slick hair was slightly ruffled. The fingers of his left hand moved through it, cradling his head. The right side of his forehead sported angry red patches.

Bryant looked him over. "You all right, Alenko?"

"Yes sir," he replied, snapping into position. "Got a headache, that's all. I get them some days. It comes with be…"

"Being a L2. Yes, I read your file. Some would say you got lucky, considering."

Bryant wondered if perhaps bringing Kaidan along was a bad idea. Besides the problems his implants were giving him, the combination of his experiences on the mission so far, the bump to his head he received the night before and the incessant yammering of the prisoner had clearly taken their toll. He needed a break.

"Some would say," Ka'hyra butted in, "that Kaidan was rather _un_lucky." She looked a little worse for wear herself. "I read a little about your _Jump Zero._"

In an instant, the old Alliance loyalty in Bryant seized control of his voice. "Gagarin Station," he corrected her and regretted it immediately. Gagarin Station was certainly not the name that Kaidan had come to know it by. He was hesitant to see how his lieutenant had reacted to the correction.

Ka'hyra looked confused. "Is that the official name? Hmm. I suppose even if you called the devil by a different name, eventually he wouldn't be as intimidating. The human capacity for reconciliation is certainly a marvel to see at work."

Without bothering to respond, Bryant looked back to Kaidan. "Alenko, get some rest, all right? Get a shower and some fresh air. Did you sleep?"

Kaidan nodded and confirmed rather meekly that he had gotten a few hours. Bryant gave him the briefest of smiles. "Okay, good. We're leaving with our prisoner in an hour. You've done a good job taking care of her, and I want you onboard later."

Right away Kaidan got to his feet and left the room. As he did, Bryant decided to personally take over the duty of watching the turian. He seated himself on the edge of the weapons desk and gave some consideration to her own condition.

A thought occurred to him. "You must be hungry," he said.

"Thirsty," she replied. "The lieutenant already informed me that you have no food fit for my species' digestion on the ship. I will last a few more hours, I'm sure. No need to…"

"I wasn't offering."

Ka'hyra nodded, smiling as if chastising herself. The lack of food seemed to have drained some of her pomposity.

"Among my people," she said softly, "I was known as an excellent pilot. Before I deserted, of course."

There was a moment of silence whilst Bryant wondered what her point might be, when she finally got around to it. "Bully for you," he said.

"I didn't say so at the time for fear of further inflating his ego, but yesterday your pilot's skill astounded me."

Still wary of her meaning, Bryant could only say, "Likewise. Moreau's probably the best helmsman the Alliance has. "

"I can believe that. And your Lieutenant, too. He's a good soldier and a fine biotic. You picked your crew well." Before Bryant could respond, she made her point. "This is the only Alliance vessel of its kind, isn't it? They're all biotic."

"Yes, they are. It's a…"

"It's a _Cabal_, captain. You've based this unit's design and strategy on the turian model for small, biotic units. Your own leadership style borrows heavily from our own culture. You're like a chieftain. May I assume this Alliance Cabal was your idea?"

Bryant stood again, as if to break the conversation and shield himself from her tiny, inquisitive eyes. This turian had a quick mind, and she had a knack for figuring people out. She wondered what she had learned about Alenko all the time he had been watching her.

Starting to walk away, he glanced over to her. "I'd prefer to continue this out in the open air," he said.

"You would," she confirmed, studying him with a detached interest. "You don't want to lose any of the time you have on Palaven. You like it here."

"Yes I like it. If you'd seen what Earth has become since my people entered space, you'd understand."

She did not answer him, but presented the captain with her latest judgment. "You know more about the turian military and way of life than you know about human biotics, I think," she offered, her head tilted.

"I know all I need to know about biotics, Velotto. And I know my men as well as anyone. Now please, let's take this upstairs." With a nod to Private Chagaan in the corner, Bryant opened the far door and waited for the Ka'hyra, hands still cuffed behind her rounded back, to pass through.

For all her arrogance, Bryant knew she was right. His deep fondness for Palaven and its people was stronger than any interest he held for the biotics programs. Though he recognized that the new dark matter-wielding soldiers were an oppressed, mistrusted and unlucky group, he could not empathize with them as she could. It mattered little to him, though. The turian Cabals were highly effective biotic shock units, and he intended his human equivalent to be just as good. Once they had rid themselves of this mission and gotten some real work done, they would make a name for themselves. Maybe that would help the biotics get some respect too.

When he made it back into the steady heat and sunlight outside, Bryant felt his spirits lifting instantly. There was a lot of talk in Alliance high command about adapting turian military models and designs. This unit, his unit, would pioneer this initiative. Soon there would be numerous biotic units just like his, but none with a reputation so well-earned.

Ka'hyra sniffed at the air. "Don't forget about Tarius when you've put me behind bars, chief," she muttered. "He isn't finished with either of us, and once I'm locked away, he'll concentrate on you."

"I can't concern myself with turian terrorists," Bryant said dismissively. "Unless they attack humanity, of course," he added with a sharp look at her.

They both fell into silence then, until Ka'hyra shook a fallen blossom from her head.

"You have a fine unit, chief," she said simply. "May its spirit live as long as your Alliance."

Bryant's initial assumption was that the captive was being sarcastic with him, but after watching her face for a while he found no venom in her words. Her use of the word 'spirit' was interesting. It suggested that even though she had abandoned her homeworld, her people and her duty as citizen, she had kept her faith.

That much, at least, was commendable. Bryant himself had flirted with the religion, right after his dabbling with spiritualism and before his long, difficult year behind a desk as the Navy's only practicing Buddhist. All three of those faiths had failed to give him the sense of purpose that the military had, and he had given up on them.

Now he made up his own rules and philosophies, and served humanity. Resting his back and looking over the edge of the docking bay wall, he watched a lone, small bird he did not recognize diving between two lush, green hills. After a moment, Ka'hyra Velotto turned her head and watched, too.

It seemed that, for the moment, she had given up trying to analyze and antagonize him. Letting himself breathe slowly and tying to forget for the moment about what had happened to poor Chief Sang, he settled himself and looked forward to the next hour or two he had on the planet.


	7. Whiplash

* * *

Mass Effect: "All Along the Watchtower"

Chapter Six - Whiplash

* * *

Bryant admired the smooth ride that the turian enforcers had provided. The vehicle was wide and spacious; more like a limousine than a prisoner transport. It hovered across the streets of Aihus City without making so much as a noise. If the captain had closed his eyes, he probably wouldn't have been able to tell that they were moving.

The transport itself was auto-guided, leaving room enough for Bryant, Kaidan and Young to flank Ka'hyra on both sides where she sat comfortably. On the opposite end of the aisle, three turian officers stood with guns poised and ready in case their prisoner decided to make any threatening movement.

An uncomfortable atmosphere, to be sure. No one had said a word after the transport began making its way to the Judiciary Temples. But it was Kaidan who finally broke the silence. He spoke to their prisoner, but didn't bother turning his head to make eye contact.

"Back on that moon," he began, "you carved a message into a tree stump. 'From the tower falls the shadow.'"

Ka'hyra remained silent.

Kaidan pressed the matter. "What did it mean?" he asked. "Was it even meant for us?"

"You are an intelligent human, Kaidan, so it pains me to see you get tangled up in this matter." Her tone was razor sharp and hinting at annoyance. "Did what you read make any sense within the context of your life?"

Put off by the turian's change in demeanor, Kaidan decided to ignore the question.

Ka'hyra sighed. "Can you blame me for my current attitude?" she asked, matter-of-factly. "No, Kaidan, that message was not meant for you and your and ragtag band of..." She tailed off. "It was meant as a simple direction, for someone else." She fell quiet for a moment. "Someone who didn't quite make it far enough to see my message."

Kaidan noticed the turian's expression grow somber. "Who was it that you tried to help?"

"Someone important." She looked to the two turian guards, whose weapons were still aimed at her forehead. A hopeless expression flitted across her marble eyes. "Someone I'd rather not be connected to right now."

Kaidan nodded in understanding. "Fair enough."

"Just know that Tarius has been trying to kidnap people like you and me for a while now. I've been doing my best to keep them out of his grip for just as long a time. But it's not enough for me to leave little guideposts here and there anymore. His reach has grown too wide. Which is the reason why I had to make an unannounced visit to your colony's moon."

"If this mission of yours was so important," Bryant cut in, "why did you blow it all by killing those Alliance scientists? You could have hid out in the jungle for years without anyone finding you."

The turian female rolled her eyes. "You and I, we're in the business of saving lives. For all our sakes, let us hope you differentiate between worthy and unworthy lives as little as I do."

Bryant huffed and waved the lecture away.

"Anyhow," Ka'hyra continued, "it was only a matter of time before someone found me out, whether I was subtle about it or not. Tarius' methods of interrogation are quite…_effective_."

The transport's console, nearest the two turian guards, lit up and emitted a gentle warning.

"What is it?" Kaidan asked.

"Traffic on the fourth level thoroughfare. We're redirecting to ground level," the first guard replied.

"That's not very typical for this time of the day," Ka'hyra purred.

The second guard shook his striped head. "I don't suspect you'd know that for sure, outcast."

Ka'hyra grinned. "I suppose I wouldn't." She settled back into her seat. "Have I been gone long enough to find my homeworld a foreign place?

The first guard leaned forward. "The second you betrayed the Hierarchy, Palaven was no longer yours."

"Hmm." Ka'hyra only stared.

"All right, now," Bryant said. "There'll be a time and a place for these accusations. The latter will be right in front of us momentarily. You boys can hold your tongues until then, can't you?"

The guards' jaws worked themselves in an aggravated fashion, but both of the turians nodded.

Their transport descended to the ground level and began to move through the gravely roads. Kaidan snuck a peek through the window behind him. He was instantly impressed by the cleanliness of the streets. The major cities of Earth could learn a lesson from the turians in that regard. Humans who dwelled within these megacities were lucky to walk the ground levels without any fear of getting robbed or worse.

Just as the Judiciary Temples began to reveal themselves above the surrounding ziggurats and skyscrapers, the transport whined to a halt. Everyone within the vehicle snapped their eyes to the front, and found that the guidance system had stopped them to allow for pedestrian traffic.

"Also typical," the first guard assured his fellow passengers. "There'll inevitably be a few more stops, but we'll get there faster this way. Upper level traffic is not something most can deal with and still retain their center."

"As long as we get there," Bryant said, smiling. He was just happy to have some momentary peace.

"Agreed," Kaidan replied, exhaling slowly. But then, as he went to rest his arms behind his head, he saw something through the opposite window, past the two guards' heads, that drained the color from his face.

_This is gonna get bad._ Kaidan hardly had time to form the thought before their transport was drowned in shadow. The two guards looked up just in time to catch sight of a tumbling hovercar careening directly toward them. The rogue vehicle slammed into their transport, forcing a gaping wound down the middle. The splintering steel and glass shredded the two turian guards as the rest of the passengers hit the floor. In the din and through a cacophony of thoughts, Kaidan heard Ka'hyra's voice, loud and firm. Almost panicky, but not quite.

"From the tower falls the shadow," she chanted. Her voice was muffled by metal now, but he couldn't make out her position. "From the killer comes the… call… from the _killer_…" As the banshee cry of twisting metal and tearing flesh reached crescendo, he could have sworn he heard her laughing.

As the car seemed to change direction, he felt it slam into the ground. In an instant he disregarded the turian's words and quickly got to his feet. When the noise had subsided his pistol was in his hand, and his eyes surveyed his surroundings. Their transport had been divided down the crumpled middle by the ravaged hovercar, effectively separating Kaidan from Bryant, Young, and Ka'hyra.

"Captain!" Kaidan called out, continuously looking out the windows around him for enemy contacts. "Captain, are you alright?"

"Yes, Alenko, yes!" the captain called back. He was coughing heavily. "Get on the comm. Call in a mayday."

"Yes, sir." Kaidan immediately began to carry out his orders but had no time to reach the receiver in his ear. The transport was torn apart. Kaidan's half of the vehicle drifted for several meters, leading a trail of sparks and broken glass behind it. He lost his balance and held on to the nearest seat until the mangled transport came to a stop.

Again, he was back on his feet. He looked out to where the other half of the vehicle had came to rest, and saw a group of four armored turians approaching it. Kaidan didn't have to think for very long before realizing those were Tarius' men. They had already caught up with them.

Kaidan kicked off into a dead sprint, keeping his eyes on the enemy turians and his pistol raised in their direction, bobbing along with his stride. When he was close enough for a clean shot, he fired off several rounds into the group. None of the four seemed aware of what had happened, but all of them had their arms raised, and a deep blue shield of dark energy surrounding them.

The bullets Kaidan had fired fell harmlessly from their shields to the ground.

Kaidan had to wrap his mind around this new development. He would be fighting biotics. Although, he couldn't help but wonder why Tarius would employ the use of their skills in his anti-biotic crusade.

Holstering his pistol, Kaidan moved in closer. The four turians were still causally walking toward Captain Bryant's half of the prisoner transport, where Young had thrown up a shimmering, weak-looking shield to protect the captain and their captive.

Kaidan latched onto the dark energies around him, and shot a kinetic blast from his arm. The ball of vapor and distortion shot through the air and caught one of the turians in the knee, sending it snapping backward and throwing him off his feet. The turian screamed out in pain, clutching his broken leg.

Witnessing the fall of their comrade, the other three turians suddenly forgot about Ka'hyra and turned their attention on Kaidan, who started to feel very small as the tall, lumbering figures made their way over to him.

"A biotic protected by other biotics," one of them said.

Another spoke up. "Tarius will be absolutely thrilled that we were able to bring back _three_ sensitives—that wench included."

"Caused us more than a bit of trouble, hasn't she?" the first muttered gruffly, enjoying the moment.

Spurred on by his fellow, the other renegade raised his chin defiantly and continued the proud display. "Yes, indeed!" he crowed. "But I do believe it'll be very much worth the effort."

The third and nearest turian, tired of the exchange, snapped a shotgun into his hands and discharged a shell in Kaidan's direction. Kaidan's shock instinctually triggered a shield around him, and the many pellets that would have torn him apart sat hovering in front of his eyes. Before the turians could react, he thrust the shield forward, sending every single pellet returning back to the turian they had come from.

With one of them still immobilized, and another collapsing from wounds that spread from head to talon, Kaidan regarded the two remaining turian biotics.

They unleashed a wave of kinetic blasts in a panic. Kaidan was able to throw up another shield, but the force of the blasts still sent him sliding across the ground. He knew he couldn't hold out forever. Eventually, the shield would drop and he'd be taking one of those strong kinetic blasts to the face—which would make things _real_ difficult.

He had been pushed so far back he was nearly back at his half of the prisoner transport. This gave him an idea. He timed the blasts that were coming at him, and at just the right moment, he dove out of the way. Using all his strength and ignoring the part of his mind telling him no, he wrapped the half-transport with dark energy and, with a strained wave of his arms, lifted it momentarily off the ground. Forcing himself to take pleasure from the maneuver, he threw his entire self into a repeat performance. This time he spat a restrained grunt as he threw his arms into the air, wrenching the wreckage up and launching it through the air at his assailants.

The two turians jumped out of the way without looking, landing clumsily on either side of the descending debris. They were able to avoid getting crushed by centimeters, but the turian with the injured leg was sucked under. His body was ground up into the gravel.

The two turians got back on their feet and found Kaidan already barreling toward them. They both began to focus their energy for another barrage of kinetic blasts, but halfway into it they both came to a realization. With Kaidan's extraordinary display occupying their attention, they had forgotten about the two biotics on their left flank.

Young was only a couple meters away, her arms bright and pulsing with dark energy. Before the turians could find any sort of cover, the woman's arms clapped together, unleashing a band of distortion that whiplashed through the air. The band struck and wrapped around the nearest turian assailant, sending him catapulting into the air. His screams were silenced as his back struck the corner of a nearby building—his body fell five stories to the ground.

One left.

The lone turian backed away from the two human biotics closing in on him. He knew this was a fight he could not win, but he was not about to turn his back on his opponents like a sniveling coward.

"You haven't won here," the turian said. "Killing us won't stop what's really at work here."

Drawing the attention of every biotic on the field, Ka'hyra approached the last turian, her arms still shackled together. "I know what you're thinking," she said. "Let it go. You're expendable, can't you see that? Tarius sent you here to test how well-defended I was in Alliance custody. He sent you here to die."

"How would you know that?" the turian asked, his body trembling.

"You don't know how close I was to Tarius at one time in my life. I'll assume that was a question out of ignorance. All the more reason why you should think this through."

Kaidan was unsure what Ka'hyra was talking about, until the turian assailant pulled a pistol from his belt.

"I can't go back," the turian said.

"No one is saying that you must," Ka'hyra assured him. "Come with us. Put the gun down."

The turian managed a smile through his anxiety. "This isn't over," he said. "You'll be his soon enough." He pressed the pistol to his jaw—and fired.

The three biotics watched the turian's body fall. He landed gracelessly on his back and rolled back and forth on his hump, the awkward motion forcing Kaidan to attend to his final moments.

The captain approached then, ignoring the scene. "Someone try and hail the _Shiloh_ on the comm. I can't raise them from mine."

Kaidan tapped his commlink active. "Alenko to _Shiloh_, do you read?" He was met with the silence of a dead channel. "Alenko to Joker. Come on, Joker, now's not the time to ignore the comm."

A loud burst of static finally filtered in. Words came through as well, in Joker's voice, but none of them made any sense.

"Say again, Joker," Kaidan said. "What's going on?"

"_We…ying…can't…_"

"Joker! I can't hear you! Adjust your frequency and—"

"_Mayday!_" Joker shouted through the receiver. "_Mayday!_ _We're under attack!_"


End file.
